Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Lili Marlene's Christmas tip for parents of teen and pre-teen kids - make an early Christmas gift of a new address book before the end of the school year, if your teen does not already have one. I like those address books and diaries that have the fancy gold edging (or silver seems to be the colour in fashion at the moment) and contain all manner of useless information, such as the telephone area code for Caracas and the metric conversion from pennyweights to grams. There's no such thing as too much information!And here's another Christmas tip for edible gift-giving in Australia - give marzipan instead of boring old chocolates. Marzipan doesn't melt and the almond meal is good for the bowels. And here's another Christmas tip for Australians living in new or decrepit suburbs - plan for the possibility that the power supply infrastructure will fail at some time during the Christmas break, especially if there is a heat wave or a storm.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

While I was listening to The Book Show on ABC Radio National this morning I was wondering what my fellow synaesthetes might think of the passage from a book that was being read aloud. It was the section from Brida by Brazillian author Paulo Coelho that has apparently been nominated for the Literary Review'sBad Sex in Literature Contest. It can be read in an article about the awards on the CBCNews web site titled "No bad sex please, this is literature." But after listening to the naughty bit from the novel I had to wonder, with that blinding explosion of golden light, just how bad could that nookie be? I'm sure Coelho's writing isn't the first literary reference to the naughtiest form of synaesthesia. What do you think Stanley in the Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire was talking about when he spoke with Stella about “..the way that we used to get the colored lights going…”? One literature study aid points out that there are sexual connotations here (well obviously), and it offers the interpretaton "that lights, when related to Stanley, are associated with positive images such as vibrancy, life and excitement." I think coloured lights might mean rather more than vibrancy and excitement to some people. ;-)I'm thinking, Nabokov probably isn't the only big name in literature who had or has synaesthesia."No bad sex please, this is literature."http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/11/21/sex-literature.html?ref=rss

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Did I miss something, or did Obama forget to mention Hillary Clinton in his victory speech? Today's events have restored my faith in Americans. Here in Australia voting in federal elections is compulsory, so our election results are not as influenced by the level of voters' enthusiasm. Australians are notoriously apathetic, so this is a necessary evil. I'm pleased that so many Americans have made an effort to vote. I hope the people of the USA will get the government that they deserve in January 2009, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Are you sure that your brain is normal?The recent report in New Scientist, which is cited after this article, confirms something that I have discovered myself about synaesthesia; that you can have various forms of synaesthesia but not be at all aware that you have them. I know this because for the last couple of years I have been steadily adding to the list of the different types of synaesthesia that I have. I've given up counting. Until now I'd just thought that so many of the idiosyncratic associations that my brain makes between unrelated things were just random thoughts, but once one becomes familiar with the patterns and characteristics of synaesthesia, it becomes apparent that there's so much more to synaesthesia than a colourful alphabet.

When I wear a fragrance I like to match the colour of the clothes that I am wearing that day with an appropriate perfume for that colour. It's interesting that one of the research studies reported in New Scientist seems to have identified such associations as possibly being another type of synaesthesia. I have suspected as much for a while. For me some colour/perfume matches are probably culturally influenced, such as a vanilla fragrance with a white shirt. Some matches are not so obvious. Like many of the study subjects I would categorize lavender as a green smell (which is one reason why I was so fond of an unusual type of lavender that I used to grow in my garden that had green flowers). Lavender is a fragrant plant that has flowers that are generally the "wrong" colour for their floral fragrance. Another obscure example is the African species Pelargonium gibbosum, or the gouty geranium. It has tiny limey green flowers in the summer time that only open at night, and are only scented from around sunset to midnight. I have grown it because of it's strange scent, which is kind of like bubblegum or jonquils, and it is definitely a magenta-coloured smell. I can't help thinking that the colour of this flower is some kind of joke by mother nature; such a grand, feminine smell wafting from such nerdy-looking little blooms. If you do grow this plant in your garden, or wish to grow it, and you live in Australia, please keep it in a pot and don't let any part of it find it's way onto vacant land or bushland, as it has the potential to spread in natural environments and become a terrible weed. I have often wondered whether matching perfumes with colours marks the theoretical borderland between normal cultural and metaphorical thinking, and abnormal synaesthesia. It appears to me that there are non-random associations between the colours of perfume packaging or names of perfumes and the scents being marketed. For example, years ago I used to love a perfume by Guerlain named l'Heure Bleue. It indeed did have a smell that I thought was blue. I wore it with blue clothes. I plead guilty to once owning a bottle of the agressively spicy fragrance "Ambush" which had a hot pink coloured plastic cap that was a perfect match to the smell. A most appropriately named fragrance.

I have a prediction to make regarding synaesthesia/synesthesia: so many newly-described types of synaesthesia will come to light through synaesthetes sharing first-hand anecdotes and researchers describing new case studies, that the synaesthesia researchers who have been keeping a record of the different types of synaesthesia will abandon their list-compiling, and may conclude that synaesthesia is not so much a collection of specific types of experiences, but is more like a different type of brain.

I've got one complaint about the article in New Scientist; I think the title is misleading, as I don't think the research reported is evidence that everyone does or might have synaesthesia. It only appears to be evidence that until now researchers might have mis-identified some synaesthetes as non-synaesthetes. I personally do not believe that all people are latent synaesthetes, and I am sceptical of the idea that all people go through a normal stage of having synaesthesia early in life, which they normally grow out of. Either you have the gene or you don't - that's what I think.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Plagarism and Helen D; it was always a beat-upI think it's so very funny that so much fuss was made (back in the 1990s) of what has been described as plagarism by Helen Darville/Demidenko in which she supposedly borrowed some words for a newspaper column from an item that was published on the internet. You can read the transcript of a story about Helen D. on the Sunday current affairs TV show that was screened in Australia in 1997: http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/cover_stories/transcript_163.aspIn this media interview the journalist harps on and on at Helen about alleged plagarism, as though it is an extraordinary sin. These days, any viewer of the ABC TV show Media Watch knows that it is a very common practice for journalists (yes, journalists, especially newspaper columnists) to "borrow" text and ideas from articles published on the internet. You don't believe me? Well have a look at this article published this year on the ABC's web site (yes, the web site of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation funded by the government): http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/05/22/2252608.htm?site=science&topic=humanThen have a look at this article by a different author, which could possibly have been published earlier than the above article: http://www.yourlittleprofessor.com/benefits.htmlI detect a definite similarity between these articles, particularly in one paragraph. It's ironic that one of these articles mentions Helen D. and AS. In a book that I have recently read the author observes that Helen D. has an extraordinary memory, apparently not a photographic memory, but still a remarkable one. This writer put forward a possible explanation for Helen D's supposed plagarism that it could have been a side-effect of her superior memory. Autistic savants are known to have incredibly accurate memory abilities, as do many less extreme cases of AS or autism. I am certain that Helen D. is on the autistic spectrum. Superior memory as an explanation for Helen's supposed plagarism is something that should be considered seriously.Copyright Lili Marlene 2008

Friday, September 19, 2008

The List grows to 138 namesWhat do the “Tin Lizzie”, the autobiography An Angel at My Table, the chess “Match of the Century” between Fischer and Spassky, the Helen Demidenko affair, the 1970s TV series Botanic Man, whistleblowing that led to the Wood Royal Commission, the Richter Scale for earthquakes, the La Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Pokemon, the book Subhuman Redneck Poems, the first modern abstract paintings, Newtonian physics, the book Born Free, the song Get Free by the Vines, Microsoft Corporation, the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, the BitTorrent downloading computer program, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the transistor, Ireland's Constitution, the Blues Brothers, the Turing Test, the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Enoch Powell's "Rivers of Blood" speech, the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, Einstein’s special theory of relativity and this silly blog that you are now reading all have in common? Yes, I know they are all works of original genius, but what else do they have in common?

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

On today's The Book Show on ABC Radio National there is an interview with Pamela Gordon who is the literary executor and niece of the famous NZ writer Janet Frame. Ms Gordon was not at all pleased when a doctor gave Frame a posthumous diagnosis of high-functioning autism last year. I do not think autism is mentioned in this interview, in which Ms Gordon discusses her role, publishing and some of Frame's work. This show is repeated at midnight and audio can be downloaded.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Helen Dale b. 1972, born Helen Darville, changed name to Dale to (reportedly) avoid discrimination in job interviews, literary pseudonym Helen Demidenko, Australian writer, P.E. teacher, winner of The Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 1993 (at age 22), the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 1995, and the Australian Literary Society Gold Medal in 1995, as Helen Demidenko, all awarded for the novel The Hand that Signed the Paper. This novel, it’s author and the awards ignited a storm of controversy in Australia that inspired the publication of four books about the controversy. Helen clearly misrepresented her ethnicity, her surname and her past in her published writing and also in her public appearances, claiming to have a Ukrainian father (untrue), claiming to be a part of the Australian Ukrainian community (untrue) and claiming to have come from a deprived underclass suburb and high school (also apparently untrue). Helen's deception is a part of a long tradition of Australian writers and film-makers exploiting a cultural preoccupation with ethnicity and gender identity politics and multiculturalism by misrepresenting their own ethnic or gender identities. Helen was also accused of plagiarism in her writing, with some justification.

The enigmatic “Helen Demidenko” became a part of Australian popular culture. A measure of her fame/infamy is the fact that some men dressed up in drag as “Helen Demidenkos: Miss Ukraine” in the 1996 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Her fame has faded considerably, possibly due to the fact that the height of her infamy pre-dated the establishment of the internet and is thus mainly reported by archival scholarly documents online, and the printed texts about the Demidenko controversy are now old.

According to an autobiographical article in Quadrant Dale was given phonics tuition and occupational therapy as a child for dyslexia and went from the bottom of the class to the top within 6 months. A number of writers have referred to a university medal awarded to Helen D. and she has claimed to have a very high IQ. Dale has expressed political views that could be categorized as right-wing. She has been involved with the Australian Skeptics. During the Demidenko affair she was defended by Australian poet Les Murray, literary editor of conservative journal Quadrant who himself has claimed to be autistic and considers himself a pariah from a leftist Australian literary establishment. Dale finds commercial law fascinating and is reported to be currently studying postgraduate law at Oxford.

Some quotes from Helen Dale:
“’Doesn’t play well with others’ was on my report card.”

“I didn't have that tendency to conform and I found it easy not to conform. I didn't scare easily. And it amazed to see that people who I respected, who I liked—would just fit in without ever really thinking about the consequences of what they did.”

“…. I saw the Waffen-SS tattoo in his armpit and I knew what it was. It's the kind of obscure thing I knew, but then I never picked up a Dolly magazine the entire time I was at high school.

“My journey through the upper reaches of the chattering classes as ‘Helen Demidenko’ was surreal.”

“I think that if people need to be told that that sort of thing is wrong, then maybe they don't have as sure a grip on their own moral sense as they might think they do.”

“I can't be responsible for other people's feelings.”

“Australian literature is burdened with a level of ideological conformity that would do East Germany proud.”

“Journalists have a remarkable talent for behaving like kiddy-fiddlers.”

“Thinking in this profession [law] is actually a good thing.”

About Helen Dale/Darville
Dale, Helen (2006) My life as a young Australian novelist. Quadrant. May 2006 p. 14-21.http://alsblog.wordpress.com/2006/08/27/my-life-as-a-young-australian-novelist-quadrant-may-2006/#more-83[article with comments, I found Dale’s explanation of why she chose to enter the world of literature, in comment no. 17, interesting]http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/archives[not currently in Quadrant archives]Dale, Helen (2006) The Hand Behind The Hand that Signed. Skeptic. Autumn 2006 Volume 26 No 1. (journal of Australian Skeptics Inc.)http://www.skeptics.com.au/journal/2006/2006.htm[this is the same article as above, info given about childhood, family, the Demidenko affair, her treatment by journalists, “the chattering classes” and literary people at the time, and her life in recent years. Interestingly, Dale described a childhood in an itinerant family with debt problems which seems incompatible with her private (high) school education at Redeemer Lutheran College, which was not explicitly mentioned. Another thing that strikes me as odd is Dale’s most negative description of her father in this article and in other media stories, compared with p.47 of the 1996 book by Prior listed below, which says that Dale/Darville’s father was reported in the press as being the same “Harry Darville” who was a candidate for the Greens in the 1993 federal election (winning 4.5% of the vote in Fadden), “and that Helen was his election manager.” I find it hard to believe that any political party would choose a person to represent them in an election who is as shady as the description of her father given by Dale/Darville in recent writings. In the All in the Mind radio interview listed below Dale/Darville gives 1996 as the date of her father’s appearance in court on a soliciting charge – running for federal parliament in 1993 and in court for soliciting 3 years later? If it is true it is quite a story. No mention of AS or autism in this article.]

*Prior, Natalie Jane (1996) The Demidenko diary. Mandarin.[an interesting account of the Demidenko affair from the point of view of a writer “friend” of Dale’s who sheltered her while she was in hiding from hostile journalists, “What immediately caught my attention on this first meeting – apart from her striking appearance – was the way she totally failed to be absorbed into the group.” (p. 15), some unusual autistic behaviour (of Dale’s) described on p. 79, after reading this book I became convinced that Helen D. is/was autistic]Wheatley, Jane (2008) Reinventing Helen. Sydney Morning Herald. Good Weekend. May 10th 2008.West Australian. WestWeekend Magazine. September 6th 2008 p.24-28.[feature article, Wheatley claims she was considering whether Dale has AS before Dale brought up the subject, Wheatley appears to have summarized and accepted Dale’s description of her childhood in an itinerant family with debt problems from the Skeptic/Quadrant article, which seems incompatible with her private (high) school education at Redeemer Lutheran College, which I could find no mention of in this article, gives a negative description of her father (discussed above),]
Wikipedia contributors (accessed 2008) Helen Darville. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Helen_Darville&oldid=237002952

Works by Helen Demidenko
Demidenko, Helen (1994) The hand that signed the paper. Allen and Unwin.[the novel that started it all]RePublica: issue 3: Scarred for life. (1995) editor: George Papaellinas. Angus and Robertson.[Other Places by Helen Demidenko is on p. 93-97, about a blonde Ukrainian girl who has won an award and fame, and is invited to make a speech at the outer-suburban Australian public high school that she graduated from. There nothing to indicate whether this is presented as an autobiographical essay or a fictional short story. This volume includes a diverse mixture of genres. There have been accusations that this story contains some content plagiarized from a work by Brain Matthews. I tried to check this out for myself but found that if his work had ever been stocked in our state public library system, it now appears to no longer be in stock.]

Manne, Robert (1996) The culture of forgetting : Helen Demidenko and the Holocaust. Text Publishing.

Manne, Robert (2005) Left right left: political essays 1977-2005. Black Inc.[includes material from his book about the Demidenko affair]*Prior, Natalie Jane (1996) The Demidenko diary. Mandarin.
[an account of the Demidenko affair from the point of view of a writer friend of Dale’s who sheltered her while she was in hiding from hostile journalists]*Riemer, Andrew (1996) The Demidenko debate. Allen and Unwin.[described as sympathetic to Helen D, but even-handed, there is a lot of stuff in the afterword of this book that I believe supports the proposition that Helen D. is/was autistic, including her explanation on p. 263-264 of why was so fascinated with the Ukraine. Some quotes from this book; “She has always had a strongly visual imagination …” “She was the school freak: bookish, brainy, the loner …” “…the thought strikes me not for the first time that she might well be an intensely committed and obsessive writer…” ]Warren, Agnes (1995) Why it took the media so long to write a story about the life of prize-winning author Helen Demidenko. Media Report. ABC Radio National. August 24th 1995.http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/mediarpt/mstories/mr240801.htm[“a language therapist” associated with Dale’s high school is mentioned as one of the people who identified “Helen Demidenko” as Helen Darville]Who's who?: hoaxes, imposture and identity crises in Australian literature. (2004) editors: Maggie Nolan & Carrie Dawson. University of Queensland Press.[essays]Link to a photo from the 1996 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi GrasHelen Demidenkos: Miss Ukrainehttp://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3118092

Monday, September 08, 2008

I knew it!I always thought there was something very odd about that Helen Demidenko lass. I found her presence in pretence oddly cold and, with the benefit of hindsight, unconvincing. Apparently others also sensed some interesting difference, and some still do. I saw a recent interview on TV with Helen D, and she seemed a lot more confident and much less lost, but once again I thought there seemed to be an unsusal disconnection between the way she viewed her own public persona and the way she actually came across. She seemed to think a quite terrible attempt at a foreign accent was convincing. It wasn't, well, not to my pedantic ear it wasn't. I was also struck by her apparent aloneness. Still an outsider after all these years? Was she born an outsider? And now today I read an article about this still-enigmatic martyr to the Australian literary establishment in which she describes an aspect of her personality as "aspy". And which Australian literary giant defended her during the height of the controversy? Les Murray, who has claimed in many media interviews to be somewhere on the autistic spectrum himself. Does it take a person who doesn't know or doesn't respect the unwritten rules, who transgresses the unwritten rules, to show us how stupid or powerful the unwritten rules are? Is that what happened during the Demidenko controversy?

It just isn’t good enough to call this problem Asperger syndrome and forget about it

I was alarmed at what I heard on this week’s edition of the ABC Radio National show All in the Mind. I have already read in an Australian social science journal that cases of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) are being misdiagnosed as Asperger syndrome (AS) in Australia, and this was amply confirmed by today’s show. It appears that clinicians are deliberately incorrectly diagnosing children who have FAS with autism or AS to give these kids better access to the services that they need (and access to some services that they apparently don’t need as well). This is how I interpreted what I heard on this programme. The written transcript is not yet available to read. I find claims of autism misdiagnosis to be most believable in light of what I saw on the ABC TV show Q & A the other night. A mother of a disabled child was complaining that her child, who I gather has some very rare condition, is excluded from the new government programme of services for autistic children because the child is not autistic, even though the parent thought such services could be beneficial to this child. It is easy to imagine that other parents in a similar position might go doctor-shopping for an autism spectrum diagnosis. Quite a while ago I watched a documentary on TV about a boy with FAS who was adopted from Africa by a UK couple. I recall he was given FAS as a formal diagnosis, but I think his adoptive mother said in the documentary that she advised his teachers to treat him as though he had AS. There was a section of the doco which was supposed to show the boy having an autistic-type sensory overload episode in a train station. I thought the boy just looked lost, nothing particularly autistic about his behaviour.

It’s high time someone raised a strong objection to anything and everything being diagnostically lumped together with AS purely for pragmatic reasons, or by mistake, or stuffed inappropriately into the autistic spectrum. This betrayal of basic scientific principles by people who call themselves professionals must end. While it is a doctor’s duty to do the best thing for patients who have FAS, and she may believe the best way to give such patients access to services is to misdiagnose them as autistic, but these clinical lies must surely have many bad consequences for the general community, and for all of the individuals involved. There are many reasons why sloppy or incorrect diagnosis of autism spectrum conditions is a harmful practice, and must stop:

1. Serious problems shouldn’t be swept under the carpet. If FAS is being underdiagnosed in white populations, bums need to be kicked and people need to be warned. If FAS is being overdiagnosed in indigenous populations that is racism. Social workers must no longer be allowed to turn a blind eye to women who booze their way through pregnancy after pregnancy, creating new families of impaired people. We all know it happens, and we all know it is a disgrace that Australian society does nothing to stop it from happening. The autistic spectrum shouldn’t be abused as a conveniently mysterious set of diagnostic categories that can be applied to the children of parents who wish to avoid facing up to the causes of their child’s condition, be it alcohol or inherited factors.

2. The misdiagnosis of FAS or other conditions as autism, AS or ADD throws a shadow of disrepute over paediatics, paediatricians, other health professionals who make misdiagnosis, the autistic spectrum and ADD. How the heck can an articulate child who has significant difficulty with maintaining a focus of attention as the result of FAS, ever be given a diagnosis of autism, which is a condition characterized by speech and/or communication difficulties and relative cognitive strength in the ability to focus attention and maintain attention? Such a diagnosis invites scorn and ridicule.

3. Misdiagnosis must surely foul up research into autism and AS and skew the clinical profile of the autism spectrum. I am sure most autism experts by now are aware that there is so much heterogeneity among their “patients” that this presents many different problems in their clinical practices and research. I’m sure this is one reason why they are so keen to identify the “genes for autism”.

4. Misdiagnosis could confuse and mislead professionals and ordinary people who come into contact with people incorrectly given autism spectrum diagnoses. I could imagine a teacher might have a bad experience trying to teach a class that includes a student with FAS or some type of brain damage incorrectly diagnosed with AS, who displays behaviour issues but no trace of the cognitive strengths in systemizing or specialized talents that are thought to be associated with AS. She might find that everything that she has read about autism has failed to help her to help her student. She might feel very frustrated. There might be confusion and conflict in her dealings with the parents of this student. She might conclude that it is a waste of time learning about things such as ADD or AS, and gain a bad attitude toward these conditions, and the people who are supposed to have them.

5. Everyone deserves and needs a correct diagnosis, even if that means being told they have brain malformation because of something that their mother did, or have such a rare and unknown genetic syndrome that the world of medical science can offer them little information. I am sure this must be better than being offered incorrect information, a place within a community in which one doesn’t really belong, bad advice or false hope.

6. Some people attach a great amount of emotional significance to knowledge of the origins of medical and developmental conditions. Some people might be devastated to know that they, or their child, has a condition that is the result of drinking during pregnancy. Some people might be devastated to know that they, or their child, has an inherited condition. Some might be comforted or relieved to know such things. If it matters a lot to people they deserve to know the truth.

7. I consider it to be something akin to an insult to be told that I have the same condition as people who have had their brains damaged or malformed by events such as encephalitis in infancy, hypoxia during birth or prenatal exposure to toxic substances such as alcohol. It’s not that I think badly of people with these conditions, it’s just that I do have a negative attitude towards brain damage, especially in cases in which it’s most obvious manifestation is aggression or impaired cognition.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

I guess the latest bit of fun in pop psychology must be the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI)http://www.thetimeparadox.com/surveys/Is it really much more than a measure of the personality psychology dimension of "conscientiousness", mixed up with attitudes resulting from life experiences? I guess I'll have to read the book.Every time I see a photo of Professor Zimbardo I can't help wondering whether he should be pulling a rabbit out of a shiny black top hat rather than writing psychology books. Does he lead a double life as Zimbardo the Magician? I'd have trouble keeping a straight face if I had to sit through one of his lectures. I'm so immature and I'm so old.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

I was browsing through some online comments about a story about a radio interview with Jill Price, who has written a book The Woman Who Can't Forget about her life with hyperthymestic syndrome, which is a condition in which people have extraordinary autobiographical memory ability. I believe that I have a condition that has some similarities with hyperthymestic syndrome. I have very old and not particularly interesting memories jump out at me for no apparent reason, and it's definitely not PTSD. I was rather stunned by a somewhat rude and skeptical comment that was posted underneath the story about Price, but it wasn't the rudeness that I was struck by.

"If she truly had perfect recall, she would have no way to distinguish between recent memories and distant memories." "For example, she would never know where she parked her car at the office. In her mind, there would be no difference in her memory of parking her car two days ago or twelve years ago. How would she know which memory was the most recent, and in turn, which memory to take action upon?"

It's a good question, and Jill Price is the only person who can answer it. I can say that I have exactly the problem described in the comment, and it is annoying at times. But isn't this type of problem completely normal? Doesn't everyone find it impossible to distinguish between old and new near-identical memories? Am I really a freak? Surely not. The cause of this annoying memory phenomenon cannot be dismissed as absent-mindedness; I know it happens because of a troublesome persistence of older memories, which cannot be distinguished from more recent memories, because the old and the new have nothing much to distinguish between them. The solution to this problem is simple; just park in the same or similar spot each time I visit the same car-park. It does also help to have a car that has an appearance that is unique in some way that is visible over a distance. No white Commodore sedan for Lili Marlene. Does my problem, and my solution, explain why autistic people often have a "need for sameness and routine"? Is this memory phenomenon an autistic trait? Do autistic people routinely suffer from troublesome and misunderstood side-effects of a superior memory ability when people interfere with the self-discovered strategies that they use to avoid such problems? Autistic people are known for having superior memory ability, as are some synaesthetes, so this seems like an explanation that could be applied to the behaviour of other people who share my unusual neurotypes.

One person who was the subject of an old case study from the psychological literature is more famous than any other for being a person who was supposedly had cognitive difficulties because he was unable to forget things. His real name was Solomon Shereshevskii, but being the subject of a case study he was given the anonymous name of "S" by A. R. Luria in his famous book The mind of a mnemonist: a little book about a vast memory. Shereshevskii had synaesthesia in abundance, a number of different types, and it appears he experienced synaesthesia as an interference to his thought processes. I have a number of different types of synesthesia, and it is a frequent but subtle experience, and to a minor degree it does influence the direction of my thoughts. Lorna Wing, who is recognized as an expert on Asperger syndrome, has mentioned Solomon Shereshevskii as a possible case of Asperger syndrome, but she has also made it clear that the evidence necessary to make a conclusive diagnosis is no longer available. Like Shereshevskii, in my case there is some evidence implicating me as a case of AS, but this will never be confirmed with a professional diagnosis. I would never have dreamed that I would have so many things in common with some dead Jewish Russian mnemonist neurological case study subject bloke.

Another memory-persistence problem that I have is remembering whether I washed my hair yesterday (or was it the day before?) I strive to wash my hair every second day, but there is no way in the world that I am ever able to pull out my memory of yesterday's shower from all of those other thousands of memories of hugely unmemorable showers past, in the same bathroom. To achieve this would be Mission Impossible. So I stand there in the bathroom wasting time examining the state of cleanliness of my hair each damned morning. If you think this memory-persistence problem means I have a generally infallible memory, you'd be wrong. I have a poor memory for the content of past conversations, and I am not much good at keeping track of my knowledge of the experiences of other people. I guess this could be explained as a deficit in "theory of mind". I often forget to do things that I had intended to do. Memories of past experiences are different to memories of recent resolutions to do things. I am sure two completely different memory systems come into play with these two different types of memory. The thing that stands out as different and possibly superior about my memory is my spatial memory; my memory for cities, highways, homes, kitchens, buildings, regions, workplace computer systems (virtual space), national parks, university campuses, country towns, imagined dream landscapes, gardens, library shelf floor-plans and suburban streets that I have moved through and seen any time in my past. It appears that these memories never die, but that's not the same as saying they are always easy to access. I guess there must be many advantages to having a generally good memory, and I've probably benefited in many ways over the years, but I'll never enjoy the anonymity of driving a white sedan of the most popular make and model.

Gura, David (2008) Woman who can't forget. Blog of the Nation. NPR. May 19th 2008.http://www.npr.org/blogs/talk/2008/05/my_colleague_dalia_martinez_pr.html[the comment quoted in my blog is from the comments posted here]

Luria, A. R. (1968) The mind of a mnemonist: a little book about a vast memory. (translated from the Russian by Lynn Solotaroff) Jonathan Cape. 1968.

Schacter, Daniel L. (2001) How the mind forgets and remembers: the seven sins of memory. Souvenir Press, 2001.[an excellent book about memory]

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Has Lili Marlene discovered another form of synaesthesia?

Would you call this “music-motion synaesthesia” or “music-spatial synaesthesia”?

The other day I was looking through a dusty drawer full of old cassette tapes, hoping to find some old musical gem, with the intention of horrifying/fascinating our teens, and reliving the music of my youth.

While playing an old favourite track “That’s Pep” from the Devo LP “Freedom of Choice” I remembered that I have always been most impressed by the fact that this track has a simple, cute, twangy electronic sound repeated often in it that goes in a circle. Those clever technical Devo people! How did they manage to coax some musical notes into going in a circle? It’s no wonder they look so smug, in those red plastic hats.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Greer still a legendI was very much impressed by Germaine Greer's appearance on Lateline on the telly last night. She's a force of nature, so confident and full of fire, and so right. You'd never win an argument with Germaine! I have not read Greer's latest publication yet, but what I heard of her ideas about Aboriginal male rage really ring true for me. I think it's interesting that an old curmudgeon like Greer is the intellectual who has been able to recognize the huge importance of this corrosive rage in indigenous people. At the risk of sounding like a racist, I've so often witnessed a very angry and vicious side to indigenous people, even in the most unexpected situations. I've seen a little innocent-looking toddler Aboriginal girl, on the foreshore of a street of a country town infamous for it's race discord, just walk up to white adults and let rip with the C-word. And believe me, she mean't it. And I could tell you many tales about indigenous children's serious school violence (in a suburban primary school). Can anything be done about this problem, now? I've no idea. As Greer pointed out, rage is not just an emotion, it is a physiological state that can have a lasting effect on the body. Could it also affect the expression of genes? Has some terrible epigenetic switch been turned on, which will last for generations?Link to story on Lateline:http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2008/s2334387.htm

Friday, August 08, 2008

Another one to add to your list of different types of synaesthesia: visually-induced auditory synesthesia, or in plain language, hearing-motion synesthesia.

You may wish to watch the short video from Newscientistvideo on YouTube to see/hear whether you have this condition.

The research that is reported and discussed in the references listed below is the third study of synaesthesia that I am aware of in which the researchers demonstrated that a particular type of synaesthesia is a genuine difference in neurological functioning by ingeniously designing a test in which the synaesthete subjects out-performed the normal control subjects. The fact that some synaesthetes can be demonstrated to out-perform people who are neurologically normal in some tasks brings us back to the questions of why do at least 1% of the population have synaesthesia, have the genes for synaesthesia been selected by the forces of evolution, and are these genes generally useful things to have?

Researcher Melissa Saenz is quoted in Scientific American as saying “I think of these people as having an enhanced soundtrack in life”. I think I’d agree with that.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Today I've added to my posting from last year that gave information and references and links regarding the renowned NZ author Janet Frame, and the controversy last year that was triggered by a posthumous diagnosis of Frame with "high-functioning autism". Was Frame somewhere on the autistic spectrum? I believe the answer to that question lies within the semi-autobiographical magical-realism style novel by Frame that was published posthumously last year, titled "Towards Another Summer". http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com/2007/12/was-brilliant-new-zealand-author-janet.html

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Lili Marlene soon to post a description of the formation of new synaesthesia associationsWhile watching a video-clip of a newly-released tune by the Wiggles and Leo Sayer "You make me feel like dancing" on Video Hits on TV this morning, I have come to the realization that this song is lime-green coloured, and this synaesthesia association dates back from my childhood, and it is an instance of a type of synaesthesia that is still giving rise to new associations between music and colour in my mind, and because I have witnessed the formation of these new music -> colour synaesthesia associations in adulthood when I have had some knowledge about synaesthesia, I am able to give a description of the conditions that appear to give rise to these new associations. I think this is pretty important stuff with regard to psycho-neurological research, even though I know the idea of a Wiggles song being lime green coloured does seem very childish and more than a little bit ridiculous. Actually I think it may be Leo Sayer's personality that is lime green coloured. It's such a cheerful colour, but a bit hard to take in large doses.

Self-esteem building programmes and activities (What happened to these kids' self-esteem in the first place?)

Cyberbullying prevention programmes

Edward De Bono’s thinking hats

“All Kinds of Minds” – Mel Levine’s theories about learning

And there was I thinking that getting an education is all about understanding concepts, learning skills, mastering self-discipline, memorizing important facts and generally discovering the wonders of the world around us. Silly me!

I have noticed that a reading of the popular volume of autobiography of Janet Frame, An Angel at my Table, is coming up on Monday morning on First Person on ABC Radio National 810am. In 2007 Janet Frame was identified posthumously by a NZ doctor as having had "high-functioning autism", but during her lifetime she had been given the diagnosis of schizophrenia which was later disputed by another doctor during her lifetime. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/firstperson/stories/2008/2209650.htm

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Wendy Portillo has set a very, very bad example of classroom behaviour

In theory, normal people are supposed to have more empathy than autistic people like myself. In theory, females are supposed to be generally more empathetic and considerate of the feelings of others. In theory, people gain emotional intelligence through learning from their life experiences, and people mature socially as we grow from childhood through adolescence into adulthood. In theory, kindergarten teachers are supposed to understand and accomodate the needs and vulnerabilities of the very young students who are under their control, including young students who have disabilities. In theory, school bullies are students, not teachers. In theory, one would feel safe to assume that all dark-skinned American people would have a special awareness of what is so wrong, so immoral, about a mob lynching mentality. But the sad reality of real life so often defies our fancy theories and naïve assumptions. Wendy Portillo is in deep, deep shit. Wendy’s fame/infamy grows by the minute. Her story is being shared all over the world, even as far as Australia. I wish every school teacher who has bullied an autistic child could become a famous as Wendy is now (there are plenty of them). Enjoy, Wendy!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

WTF?????Now my "Empathy" blog post is off the Google database again. This is all very strange. My blog piece about "Hyperthymestic syndrome" is still on the database, but it no longer comes up very high on the results listing for searches on terms such as "Hyperthymestic syndrome" or "Hyperthymestic" the way it did ever since it was published. That was the blog article in which I pointed out some facts that might have made some academics look rather foolish. Something has definitely changed re Google. If anyone can provide an explanantion or knows of any technical changes at Google I'd love to know about it. I must say, for the last year or so, a lot of the stuff that comes up high in search engine rankings in general has been what I would call worthless tripe. How can anyone explain why half-baked copies of one of my best-known blog pieces and links to this blog article rank much, much higher in Google rankings than the original blog piece itself? That just doesn't make sense to me. There was a time when you could throw a suitable search term into Google and find something useful and sensible to read at the number 1 position of a Google results page. That is why Google has been my favourite search engine for many years now, and other search engines were pretty good too. God only knows why half of the stuff gets in the first page of search engine rankings these days. I'm Not Feeling Lucky these days! What is going on?I guess the message is that if you have found any article from this blog interesting or useful do remember to bookmark it as you cannot rely on finding it again easily through search engines.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

What's going on here?I just noticed that my most recent blog post, in which I criticised pop science writers for their careless and offensive writings on the subjects of empathy and lack of empathy, appears to be no longer on the Google database. I know that post did come up in Google results lists just days ago in response to searches on particular terms. I guess this is what happens when one dares to criticise a popular and profitable intellectual fad.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Empathy and lack of empathy; two of the stupidest and most offensive fads in popular science writing today

(last edited August 2008)

Many autism experts and autism-related organizations want the public to believe that the autistic spectrum is The Most Important Problem Facing Society Today. They have vested interests in promoting this message. They want you to believe that terrible, terrible things will happen in the future if we don’t give them a lot of money to spend on their projects that aim to eradicate, medicate or remediate autism. Some of these people with vested interests in the autism industry will go so far as promoting the idea that solving the “puzzle” of autism will provide an explanation for just about everything that is bad and dysfunctional about humankind and human society. Some cite testosterone as an explanation for male violence, war crimes and man’s inhumanity to man in general, and then they go on to argue that autism is the most extreme example of the biological and social effects of this supposedly demonic hormone. Why did the Holocaust happen? Testosterone! Why are males over-represented in the population of convicts? Must be testosterone! You don’t need to be a genius to pick up the message that is written between the lines; that autism is a bad, bad thing and that autistic people do bad, bad things.

Writers of bestselling pop science books and articles in popular science magazines appear to have uncritically embraced this dominant view of autism as the condition that typifies a “lack of empathy”. These writers, many of them renowned psychologists, many of them in senior academic positions, appear to be content to cut and paste their writings on the subject of autism and empathy almost directly from texts produced by influential autism experts. They cite the same texts in their lists of references and notes. For a group of people who are supposed to be highly educated independent investigators of the scientific realm, they certainly seem to behave like a flock of stupid sheep. In books and articles written for a general readership it is common to see psychopathy and autism discussed as though the two very different conditions were almost interchangeable. This is the worst kind of intellectual sloppiness.

This shoddy work is inexcusable when one considers that an abundance of evidence has always been available in the scientific literature to those who choose to search independently. There is some clinical evidence that clearly indicates that autism (uncomplicated with other conditions) and anti-social type personality disorders may in fact be mutually exclusive. One study of temperament and character in adults with Asperger syndrome, that involved 31 people with AS, categorized these people into Cloninger’s temperament types and eight different temperament types were found, but not one of these 31 people with AS were found to fall into the category of Antisocial temperament type (Soderstrom, Rastam & Gillberg 2002). Another study of the impact of ADHD and autism spectrum conditions on temperament, character and personality development, which involved, among other subjects, 47 people who had an autism spectrum condition only, found that among this group of patients many cases of various personality disorders could be identified, but no cases at all of Antisocial personality disorder were identified in this group (Anckarsäter Stahlberg Larson et al 2006 Table 3). A number of different teams of researchers have found clear differences between autism and psychopathy. Severe malfunction or deficit in the “theory of mind” “mental module” is thought to be a central feature of autism. In one study psychopaths were found to have performed at the same level as non-psychopath incarcerated controls, and significantly better than highly able adult autistic people in an advanced test of theory of mind abilities (Blair et al 1996). Another study has found no generalized impairment in theory of mind in psychopaths (Richell et al 2003). It appears that psychopaths have no problem with “theory of mind”. It appears that psychopathy and autism are profoundly different conditions. Another study has found that psychopathic and non-psychopathic subjects who met clinical criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) had generally intact theory of mind abilities, with the psychopath sub-group subtly more capable. In one test of mentalizing ability the results suggested that the ASPD subjects had more indifference than lack of ability to understand in relation to social faux pas (Dolan & Fullam 2004). A study of autistic boys conducted by researchers that included autism experts found no relationship between “severity” of autism and “psychopathic tendencies”, and found that such tendencies did not appear to be related to core autistic deficits. These researchers concluded that psychopathic tendencies are not a facet of autism but can in some cases be found in addition to autism (Rogers et al 2006). More recent research is also turning up evidence that calls into question the currently fashionable model of autism and empathy. Science News recently reported two brain-scanning studies involving autistic and normal control subjects which gave results that would surprise some people (Saey 2008).

The most recent example of stupid science writing on the subject of empathy that I have noticed is A. C. Grayling’s recent commentary piece in New Scientist magazine. Grayling writes about morality and moral relativism and mirror neurons, and then asserts that “This strongly suggests that the ability to understand others, read their intentions, interpret their emotional states, predict their behaviour and respond appropriately – the very basis of social capacity itself, and thus of morality – is linked to the involuntary modelling of others that mirror-neuron activity makes possible.” If you find this statement credible it follows that you must regard people who don’t have an ability to understand others, presumably because they don’t have properly functioning mirror-neurons, as being immoral or at least partly incapable of acting as moral agents. Grayling mentions that some researchers believe malfunctioning mirror-neurons are “a factor in autism”, so you are left in no doubt as to whom these morally-disabled people might be. But there is a very questionable jump in Grayling’s argument. He asserts that morality is based upon “social capacity”, but he offers no argument to support this bold assertion. You can say this all you like Mr Grayling, I still wont believe it is true. I know lots of very sociable and popular people who don’t appear to have had very much morality rub off onto them, and some of the most decent people that I know are socially clumsy loners. Please explain, Mr Grayling.

This idea that morality is “hard-wired” into all normal people’s brains would have been laughed at 20 years ago. I am old enough to remember the days when parents, churches and other religious groups took on the responsibility to teach their young what is right and what is wrong. While this process was in many ways flawed and sometimes failed, I believe it was a whole lot better than sitting back hoping that the younger generation will somehow be given a sound moral education by means of empathizing or mirror-neuron activity or peer socialization. These days many children receive most of their moral guidance from their teachers and headmasters at their local government-run school, after the child has breached the moral code in some way. The moral virtues are now a formal subject in the curriculum in the government primary school system in the state of Australia where I live. Apparently mirror-neurons alone aren’t sufficient moral guidance for Australian children.

All of these people, who say and write and insinuate these things about autism, usually fail to do a number of very important things. Firstly, they fail to make important distinctions between the many and varied forms of “anti-socialness” and of altruism. They often write about the subject of empathy with a vagueness and an evasiveness that often has the effect of making their writing meaningless. Their arguments often cannot be challenged or contradicted or disproved with the findings of research studies, because their arguments are often so sloppy and vague that they could be taken to mean almost anything. And I believe that’s exactly what they aim to achieve.

In a related form of vagueness, these writers fail to clearly define what they mean by “empathy”, or they move beyond their stated definition without explanation or warning, when it suits their purposes. Even though there is a confusing variety of different definitions of the meaning of the word “empathy”, and different authorities give different accounts of different types of empathy, one can still discern one specific meaning of the word that appears to be common to most writing on the subject. This definition of empathy is that it is the identification with or experiencing of the feelings or thoughts of another person. When one reflects on this definition, it is a quite narrow concept. Identifying with another person’s feelings or thoughts is not the same as identifying with their best interests. It is not the same thing as caring about someone else’s health or wealth or social standing. It is not the same thing as generally identifying with another person. It is not the same thing as being motivated to do anything to assist another person; it is quite possible that a person may empathize with another person’s misery, but do nothing to improve their situation. How many times have you felt empathy for disaster victims shown on the TV news, but have not bothered to donate to any charity that is working on that project? Imagine you are taking care of a drug addict going through a tough withdrawal process. If you truly empathize with your patient’s immediate feelings, does that mean you feel compelled to give them a dose of their favourite drug to make the bad, bad feeling go away? Pop science writers never pause to point out what a limited and narrow concept empathy really is. They never admit that empathy isn’t the most useful or beneficial feature of human psychology. Who would dare to express criticism of the latest big fad in pop psychology? They are happy to leave the reader to possibly confuse empathy with other related, but broader or more important concepts, such as altruism or compassion. They want you to believe that they are writing about really big and important things, when in fact the subject of their writing may be not much more than a scientific curiosity.

Another failure of most pop science writing about empathy is that the writers never, ever explore the view that there is something irrational, delusional even possibly pathological about the idea of empathy, or empathy itself. It appears that the entire non-autistic section of the human race lacks an understanding that it is not literally possible to experience someone else’s emotions or thoughts. We all have different, unique brains. Even the brains of identical twins are not exactly the same. It is most likely that our feelings and subjective experiences are not identical, and may even be very different. Anyone who has read a book of neurological anecdotes by Oliver Sacks, or an account of synaesthesia or autism, will understand that there can be important differences between the inner lives of people (yes, autistic people, synaesthetes and the subjects of Oliver Sacks’ anecdotes are all people). It might be impossible for you to understand or experience what I experience. And the brains of humans cannot communicate directly. Feelings cannot be communicated directly between people, we can only resort to verbal, textual or body language, which are all failure-prone. We cannot assume that others’ feelings can be accurately simulated, imitated or imagined, because we can never know for sure what it actually feels like to be someone else. People always bring their own experiences and neurological differences to any attempt to interpret the experiences of others. As one pop science writer recently wrote on the subject of people trying to understand what is within other’s minds and hearts; “When we judge others’ behaviours, attitudes, values and beliefs, we anchor on ourselves and extrapolate – we assume other people like what we like, want what we want and believe what we believe, …” (Brunstein 2008). When people who believe in ESP claim that they can read the minds of others, most sensible people dismiss such claims as nonsense. Why are sensible people obliged to take claims about mind-reading made by psychologists any more seriously?

When writing about autism and empathy, most pop science writers commit the sin of failing to inform their readers that the vast majority of anti-social behaviour, of criminal acts, of child neglect, of murders, of sex offences, of malicious gossip, of domestic violence, of workplace bullying, of harmful addiction-related behaviour and of corporate greed, is committed by people who are not in any way autistic. These so-called experts fail to admit the fact that that the vast majority of crimes are committed by people who have disorders that are nothing to do with the autistic spectrum. These writers fail to explain the many important differences between autism and the other conditions that are known to be, and in some instances are defined as being, associated with criminal or anti-social activities. These people either don’t know or don’t care about the real characteristics of psychopathy and criminality. Perhaps they are afraid that they might recognize something of themselves in the clinical descriptions of the psychopathic personality.

Perhaps the worst omission in the writing of pop science writers who delve into the subject of empathy is the failure to acknowledge the fact that it is perfectly normal, even desirable, to “lack empathy” or repress empathy, in many social situations. Normal people lack empathy. They lack empathy for people of other races (consciously or unconsciously). They lack empathy for people who are not members of their own social groups. Followers of other religions or ideologies are demonized. Outsiders are distrusted and bullied. Many people distance themselves from or even celebrate the misfortunes of their enemies. The results of one scientific study, reported in Current Biology and also in New Scientist magazine, suggest that learning how to control or repress feelings of empathy may be an essential part of the training of medical doctors (Cheng et al 2007). Ironically, the suppression of empathy practiced by physicians while they were watching videos of acupuncture procedures was associated with more activity in parts of the brain involved in theory of mind and regulation of emotion. Here we have “theory of mind” associated with an apparent decrease in feelings of empathy, which sits oddly with the established theory that “lack of empathy” in autistic people is due to some deficit in “theory of mind”.

Historians and social psychologists have discovered ample evidence of the highly selective nature of human empathy. Human empathy or compassion must be at least partly culturally or socially determined, because in different periods of history and in different societies, levels of general humanitarian sensitiveness appear to vary greatly. In a recent pop science book Steven Pinker pointed out that “In 16th century Paris, a popular form of entertainment was cat burning… the spectators, including kings and queens, shrieked with laughter as the animals, howling in pain, were singed, roasted, and finally carbonized.” (Brockman 2007). In one of her autobiographical books Temple Grandin described another horrific vision of animal cruelty that occurred as a part of the normal processing in a cattle slaughterhouse, which she set her mind to reforming. When autistic people display greater concern about cruelty to animals than many supposedly normal people display, it is sometimes theorized that autists empathize more with animals because we are more like animals than normal folk. If that is the case, I think it must be a nobler thing to be more like an animal than to be more like a callous slaughterhouse manager or a spectator splitting her sides at a 16th century cat burning.

The blatant sadism of cat burning as a public amusement is a reminder of one of the major flaws in the currently popular theories linking human morality with empathy; these theories fail to explain the psychology of the sadist. If people who lack empathy are people who are indifferent or detached from the emotions or suffering of others (including animals as others), then it seems to follow that these people would not derive any enjoyment from positively sadistic activities, because these people should have little or no sense of personal involvement in the situation of the victim. One would expect an essentially emotionally detached person to stare dispassionately at a cat burning, or show no interest at all. Why would such a person laugh? Clearly sadism and “lack of empathy” must be different psychological states. One could argue that sadism is an entirely different thing because it is a form of perversion, and therefore cannot be compared with states that consist of different levels of empathy, but I think any theory about “lack of empathy” that fails to explain what motivates some people to do deliberate acts of cruelty has got to have something seriously wrong with it. One of my biggest objections to many examples of recent writing about empathy is that the writers have failed to warn readers about the extent of human behaviour and mental states that they have not explained.

The author of one recently released book has gone against the trend, giving a thoughtful discussion of apparent similarities between psychopathy and autism, along with an intelligent account of the nature of psychopathy. Daniel Nettle hasn’t just snatched a few ideas and the odd study result from some autism expert, and woven these into a glib little side note that uses autism as device to further an argument for some grand theory, as many pop science writers have done. In his book Personality: what makes you the way you are”Nettle discusses his own research and takes the time to do justice to the subjects discussed. It just proves that other writers could certainly do better.

Today I read a review of a pop science book on the subject of empathy that has just come onto the market. There is no end in sight to this empathy fad. We might not have seen the worst of it. Perhaps the best remedy to the current epidemic of half-baked and one-eyed theorizing about empathy is to examine the different concepts that make up our cultural and scientific understanding of empathy, lack of empathy, and related subjects including morality, regardless of how absurd or irrelevant any of these may appear to be. Let me lead you on a merry jaunt through prisons, dictionaries, the Italian Renaissance, the DSM, the OMIM, US railways of the 1800s, scientific journals, personality questionnaires, pop psychology books, popular prejudices, down under to Colonial Australia, and beyond the pale. I invite you to browse my lists below, have a think, and make your own conclusions, and formulate your own questions.

Concepts, labels and conditions that are associated (correctly or incorrectly) with empathy, or are sometimes confused with empathy

Empathy – There are many different definitions, some appear to require an experiencing of others’ emotions, while others appear to require only intellectual understanding. Some definitions appear to be not limited to empathy between people.Some definitions:- power of projecting one’s personality into object of contemplation- fully comprehending object of contemplation- entering into the feeling of another- entering into the spirit of another- understanding- understanding another’s feelings through imagining or remembering being in a similar situation- understanding or experiencing the feelings or thoughts of another without having these feelings or thoughts explicitly communicated

Different psychologists use different models of empathy, and some also identify various sub-types of empathy:- Professor Paul Ekman, a world expert on deception, emotions and facial expression, identifies three types of empathy; cognitive empathy, emotional empathy and compassionate empathy, and he explains that cognitive empathy is required in order to have the other types of empathy, but emotional empathy is not a pre-requisite for compassionate empathy. Ekman states that empathy is not an emotion, it is a reaction to the emotions of others.- Internationally recognized autism expert Professor Simon Baron-Cohen has identified an affective component and a cognitive component of empathy.- Daniel Nettle divides human theory of mind into two related capacities, which are empathizing and mentalizing. Mentalizing is attributing a mental state to another person. Mental states can include desires and beliefs. Empathizing is a more specialized form of mentalizing that involves representing the emotions of others, which has the potential to affect the empathizer. This definition of empathizing appears to be at odds with some definitions of empathy, in that it does not appear to require the empathizer to experience or be personally affected by the emotions of others, but it does allow for such a possibility.

Sympathy – One could say that this word has the same meaning as “empathy”, but is not quite as scientific-sounding. Some dictionaries give definitions of sympathy that are practically identical to those given for empathy in some dictionaries.Some definitions:- compassion for- agreement with in desire or opinion- being affected with the same feeling as another simultaneously- to share or claim to share another thing’s or person’s condition, sensation or emotion

Compassion – pity for the misfortune or suffering of another, may lead one to be helpful or to show mercy

Altruism – seeking the welfare of others

Scoring high for Agreeableness in personality tests – People who do this are described as empathetic, helpful, trusting, friendly and pleasant, with an optimistic view of human nature. Although there is a lot of overlap in scores between men and women, women as a group tend to score higher for agreeableness than men as a group.

Dependent personality disorder – In his book Personality Daniel Nettle has identified DPD as the closest thing that can be found in the population to a theoretical condition of being an extreme high scorer for the personality dimension of Agreeableness. DPD is more commonly identified in women than in men.

Scoring high for Conscientiousness in personality tests – People who do this are described as hard-working, reliable, conscious of rules, self-disciplined, careful and thorough. Low scores for conscientiousness are associated with ADHD, alcoholism, gambling and Antisocial Personality Disorder. Extremely high levels of conscientiousness are associated with Obsessive-compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) which is not the same as OCD. It is characterized by perfectionism, orderliness, adherence to rules, exercise of control, hoarding and problems with personal relationships. I have a strong suspicion that many people given this diagnosis are autistic people who have reached adulthood without being identified as such. Disorders associated with very high and very low conscientiousness are both substantially more prevalent in men (Nettle, 2007).

Extroversion/Extraversion – Some employers assume that job applicants who appear to have extroverted or sociable personalities are nicer or more empathetic people than more socially reserved job applicants. This may be an unwise prejudice. The personality trait of extroversion is associated with Factors 1a and 1b of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R).

Down syndrome – a genetic chromosomal condition characterised by intellectual disability and a number of different physical traits and defects. People with Down syndrome are often described as sociable, affectionate and happy, but there are some people who have the dual diagnosis of Down syndrome with autism. I’m sure most people have had the experience at least once in their life of being spontaneously hugged by a stranger who has Down syndrome.Williams syndrome (Williams-Beuren syndrome, WBS) – a genetic syndrome associated with small head size, intellectual disability, very low IQ scores, physical defects, difficulty with literacy and arithmetic, poor visuospatial and motor ability, and attention deficit, but people with this syndrome may also have excellent verbal skills, superior and precocious musical ability, perfect pitch and a good memory for names and faces. People with this condition have been described as “empathetic, loquacious, and sociable”. It has been suggested that this syndrome is like the opposite of autism. Oliver Sacks wrote an interesting description of this condition in his recent book Musicophilia.

Cohen syndrome – a highly variable genetic syndrome associated with small head size, intellectual disability, visual disability, obesity, poor muscle tone and other features. People with this condition have been described as showing “overly friendly behaviour” with a characteristically “sociable”, “positive”, “cheerful” or “cooperative” personality. Autistic features have been identified in some people who have Cohen syndrome (Howlin 2001). One study has found some autistic-type behaviour in people who have Cohen syndrome, but failed to confirm that there is any increased prevalence of autism in Cohen syndrome (Chandler et al 2003).Low Machs – these are people who score low on a test for the psychological trait of Machiavellianism (see section below). These people tend to be trusting, empathetic, honest in dealings with others and optimistic about human nature. Extreme low scorers may be socially inept and passive. Some academics consider “Machiavellian intelligence” and “theory of mind” to be the same thing, implying that autistic people are deficient in Machiavellian intelligence, which might imply that autistic people should be “Low Machs”. This would seem consistent with the description of extreme Low Machs as socially inept, but there seems to be some inconsistency when one compares the personality traits associated with Machiavellianism. High Machs score low for the personality dimension of agreeableness and high for conscientiousness, and one might assume that Low Machs score the opposite, but being a high scorer for agreeableness and a low scorer for conscientiousness does not seem at all typical of an autistic personality.Mirror-touch synaesthesia – In a study by Banissy and Ward that involved 10 people who have this neurological condition and 45 control subjects, the mirror-touch synaesthetes were found to score significantly higher in the Emotional reactivity subscale of the Empathy Quotient (EQ), but this was not found in their scores in the Cognitive empathy and Social skills subscales or their overall EQ scores.

Having properly functioning mirror neurons – Mirror neurons fire when an animal observes an action performed by another animal of the same species, and they also fire when the animal performs the same action. Mirror neurons have been directly observed in monkeys, and humans are thought to have them. These neurons are believed to mediate the understanding or imitation of the actions of others. Monkey see, monkey do. It has been theorized that mirror neurons play an important role in empathy, language and “theory of mind”, and some have theorized that autism is caused by some kind of deficiency in mirror neurons.

Ability to accurately monitor one’s own heartbeat – No truly, I am not joking. In the book The body has a mind of it’s own a study with a small number of subjects is described in which it was found that the four subjects who were best at monitoring their own heartbeats also scored the highest in an empathy questionnaire. It was not stated whether these high scores were due you any particular subscale of the empathy questionnaire.

Yawning in response to seeing others yawn - This behaviour is thought to be mediated by mirror neurons.

Parental instincts – Some people show more altruism towards their offspring than others. This is sometimes explained with reference to psychological bonding with newborns.“Team spirit” – People who are team sport fans and people who enjoy working as a part of a team at work tend to be more trusted or highly regarded than people who have no “team spirit”, for reasons that are unknown to the author.Femaleness – Human females are usually the primary care-givers of their biological offspring. Many people take this as proof that human females are biologically psychologically programmed to be more caring or altruistic than human males. There is one biological, non-psychological reason why males are not fully capable of taking on the role of primary care-giver at birth; males cannot lactate, and breast milk is still regarded as the best nutrition for infants up to the age of 1 year, and in many infants breastfeeding may also be beneficial to neurological development beyond 1 year.

Concepts, labels and conditions that are associated (correctly or incorrectly) with lack of empathy, or are sometimes confused with lack of empathy

Psychopathy – A long-term pattern of behaviour that is immoral, antisocial and predatory. This label is generally only given to adults, and is more commonly identified in males than in females. This category is not currently found in either of the major psychiatric diagnostic manuals, but there are diagnostic instruments applicable to psychopathy, as well as a large body of scientific literature about this disorder. It is thought that 1% of the general population and 20% of imprisoned criminals are psychopaths, with psychopathic criminals responsible for a substantial proportion of serious crimes. Psychopathy is thought to be incurable and untreatable.Dr Robert Hare developed the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). There are various legal definitions used in different regions for Psychopathy in addition to Hare’s clinical definition, some applied specifically to sex offenders or paedophiles. The term “psychopathy” also has an obsolete meaning no longer used in psychiatry, a blanket term for any form of mental illness or psychosis. The label “psychopath” is often applied to serial killers and murders by authors of popular literature and mass media journalists.

It is thought that psychopathy may be in some ways adaptive, at least in the short-term, and is not incompatible with a career in politics, law or the media. Psychopaths can be manipulative and charming and may also be violent and intimidating. They do not respond to punishment. Subtypes and sub-factors of psychopathy have been identified by some researchers. Some more characteristics that are associated with psychopathy include: impulsiveness, pathological lying, shallow affect, need for stimulation, irresponsibility, superficial charm, parasitic lifestyles, sexual promiscuity, multiple short-term marriages, early behaviour problems, juvenile delinquency, deficiencies regarding guilt, remorse and empathy, and a grandiose sense of self-worth. Factors 1a and 1b of the PCL-R are associated with extroversion. Factor 2 is correlated with suicide but Factor 1 is not.

In his book Personality Daniel Nettle describes psychopaths in terms of psychological personality dimensions, being extremely low scorers for the dimension of agreeableness, very low scorers for neuroticism and also low scorers for conscientiousness. As mentioned above, high extroversion in the dimensions of personality psychology may also be an element of the psychopathic personality.

Sociopathy – Sometimes used as a synonym for psychopathy. This term is used by some scientists to refer to immoral people who’s condition is thought to be more the result of childhood environment and sociological factors than genes or psychobiological abnormality. Factors thought to contribute toward sociopathy include childhood neglect, deviant peer group, poverty and extremely high or low level of intelligence.

Female psychopathy - Female psychopaths are less commonly identified than male ones, and researchers have found their mean scores in the PCL-R are lower, but some have argued that this is a reflection of gender bias. Criminal versatility and sexual promiscuity are two psychopathic traits that appear to be stronger indicators of Psychopathy in females than in males. It appears that many studies of psychopathy in women have been limited to prisoner populations.

Criminality - Short-term type – typically offend in their teen years, possibly as a response to peer pressure, and then generally grow out of it. May be at elevated risk of developing mental illness or drug abuse.

Criminality – Early-onset, Long-term type/Violent type – Thought to be identifiable from early childhood, having a biological disposition to behaviour issues which can lead to a life of crime if combined with negative environmental influences such as maltreatment. The strength of evidence for maltreatment as a causal factor has been questioned. In her book No two alike Judith Rich Harris scrutinized a well-publicized large study of New Zealander males. Harris pointed out that some of the experiences that fell under the definition of “maltreatment” in this study are associated with other environmental factors. Harris stated that she could think of alternative explanations for the study’s results, such as interaction between the identified high-risk gene and another unknown gene, or interaction between the identified gene and other negative environmental influences such as low-SES and being raised in a crime-riddled neighbourhood.

This mostly male group is thought to be characterized by having a combination of three conditions; low IQ, a diagnosis of ADHD and poor language skills. This group is thought to be responsible for a large proportion of violent crimes. This disorder is thought to be largely genetically determined and runs in families. One variant of the MAO-A gene is thought to be involved. This variant has been associated with high activity in a part of the brain called the amygdala, which is involved in processing emotions.

Criminality – Early-onset, Long-term type/Violent type – Callous and Unemotional (CU) traits subtype – Thought to account for 30% of children who show a pattern of antisocial behaviour. These youths are characterized by lack of fear, lack of empathy, lack of guilt, narcissism and thrill-seeking. They respond to rewards but are unresponsive to punishment, and have a normal level of intelligence. This group share many characteristics with adult psychopaths, a group that possibly has low levels of activity in the amygdala. This disorder is thought to be highly genetically determined, but there is some evidence that parenting interventions utilizing rewards to modify behaviour can be effective.

Undetected criminality – This is obviously a very difficult subject to study scientifically.

Addiction – There are many different forms of addiction; alcoholism, smoking, heroin addiction, problem gambling, internet addiction, sex addiction, and almost all of them have considerable or serious anti-social effects. Addiction is generally an anti-social behaviour.

Conduct Disorder -A psychiatric disorder characterized by rule-breaking, cruelty to animals, cruelty to people and violence. It is a diagnosis that is typically given to children and adolescents, and is thought to be a precursor to Psychopathy in some cases. More males are given this diagnosis than females. Some have argued that this is the result of gender bias in the way this disorder is defined.

Oppositional-Defiant Disorder - a controversial diagnosis that is typically given to children, thought to be a precursor to Conduct Disorder or Psychopathy in some cases. It is also thought to be a less serious problem than Conduct Disorder.

Antisocial Personality Disorder – the closest thing to Psychopathy in the DSM, more commonly identified in males than in females, correlated strongly with criminality and Factors 2a and 2b of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, associated with reactive anger, impulsive violence and suicide. It is thought that something like 80% of imprisoned criminals fit the criteria for this disorder. In his book Personality Daniel Nettle writes that APD is a rather broad category which may describe a number of different personality configurations. ADP and problem gambling and addiction appear to be in some way interlinked, because these conditions are found within the same families more often than one would expect by chance.

Dissocial Personality Disorder – the closest thing to Psychopathy in the ICD-10.Executive Dysfunction/Dysexecutive syndrome – A few years ago it was fashionable for writers in the areas of neuropsychology and autism to identify the part of the brain known as the amygdala as being a very important part of the brain responsible for empathy, and now it appears that “mirror neurons” are the latest fad amongst those who are anxious to localize empathy as a mental module somewhere inside the human brain, but 10 or so years ago it was all the fashion to identify the frontal lobes as the part of the brain that “does” empathy. Dysexecutive syndrome or executive dysfunction tends to follow a brain injury to the frontal lobe region of the brain. Some symptoms associated with this disorder or group of disorders include: lack of inhibition of emotions (including anger), “inappropriate” behaviour, and deficits in memory, attention, planning and reasoning. Deficits in social empathy are sometimes cited as resulting from frontal lobe damage.

Executive function and executive dysfunction are concepts that have still not been clearly defined in terms of expected behaviour, but this hasn’t prevented a generation of pop psychology bestseller writers in the 1990s from trotting out Phineas Gage, an American railroad worker who sustained a famous case of frontal lobe brain damage in 1848, as a case study of executive dysfunction associated with a Jekyll and Hyde transformation from a nice personality into a horrid personality. Many a time in the last decade or two I’ve been reading some psychology book and have thought to myself “Oh Christ! Not another recounting of the story of Phineas Gage!”

Gage has been described by many writers as an example of a person who lost his moral sense when a part of his brain was blown out of his head by a tamping iron, but was the post-accident Gage really a person without morality, empathy or organizing ability? The extent of Gage’s personality and mental changes post-accident are uncertain (Wikipedia 2008). I have read a book about Gage (Fleischman 2002), and I don’t recall reading that any murders, crimes, atrocities or frauds were ever committed by Gage. While accounts of Gage’s post-accident personality generally describe a man who is foul-mouthed, disrespectful, impaired in decision-making and unable to get along with other adults, it appears that there were discernable limits to the extent of Gage’s acquired disability. Fleischman recounts a description of a post-accident Gage showing a great fondness for children and animals, entertaining his nephews and nieces with stories. While Gage apparently lost his ability to behave as a social being among his age peers, this is certainly not the same thing as generally losing empathy. While Gage did lose the job as a foreman that he had before his accident, he did go on to work in other jobs, probably working as a coach driver at one time, in charge of a team of six horses. I would describe the post-accident Phineas Gage as being an outsider, but not a monster.ADD/ADHD – is often co-morbid with anti-social type disorders that are typically diagnosed in young people, such as Oppositional-Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder.Scoring low for Agreeableness in personality psychology questionnaires – People who do this are described as self-interested, lacking empathy, unhelpful, unfriendly, non-compliant, socially manipulative, suspicious of the motives of others, and more competitive than cooperative. Some researchers have found a correlation between scores for this factor and scores on one “theory of mind” task, but not for another “theory of mind” task (Nettle 2007), suggesting possibly some kind of link between this dimension of personality and autism. Daniel Nettle states that psychopaths are at the most extreme end of low-agreeableness, but he also explains that criminal psychopathy is associated with other personality characteristics in addition to extreme low agreeableness.Scoring low for Conscientiousness in personality psychology questionnaires – People who do this are described as laid-back, impulsive, weak-willed, procrastinators, spontaneous and not motivated by goals. Low scores for conscientiousness are associated with ADHD, alcoholism, gambling and Antisocial Personality Disorder.

Alexithymia – A study by researchers at the University of Zurich using functional MRI has been reported in Science News to have results indicating that this condition may be associated with abnormalities regarding empathy, while this was not found in subjects who had Asperger syndrome without Alexithymia.Normally functioning mirror neurons and hatred of homosexuals – In the book The body has a mind of it’s own it is speculated that mirror neurons, which have recently been associated with empathy, may also give rise to homophobia because they may force straight people to experience feelings that they find repugnant if they witness homosexual activity.

Selfishness- the opposite of altruism- lacking consideration of others- mostly concerned with own pleasure or profit

Schadenfreude- the opposite of compassion- enjoyment of others’ misfortunes in a malicious way

Indifference to or detachment from the feelings of others – the opposite of empathy

Sadism- morbid enjoyment of inflicting physical or mental pain- deriving pleasure from inflicting or witnessing cruelty- sexual gratification gained from causing humiliation or physical pain, a form of perversion

Sadistic personality disorder – This personality disorder appeared in one revised edition of the DSM that came out in 1987, but is not included in the current edition of the DSM.High Machs – see below.Machiavellianism – a tendency to manipulate and deceive others for personal gain. A term used by some psychologists, and a test has been created to measure this trait. People who score high on this test are called “High Machs”. These people could be described as cold and calculating. They score low for the personality dimension of agreeableness and high for conscientiousness. They could be described as being somewhat like psychopaths, but much more mindful of consequences. Machiavelli was a political philosopher and diplomat from the Italian Renaissance.Machiavellian intelligence – a form of political or social intelligence that can involve the gainful use of behaviours such as lying, deception, rule-breaking and reneging on promises. Some academics consider Machiavellian intelligence and “theory of mind” to be the same thing, implying that autistic people are deficient in Machiavellian intelligence.Lacking socially responsive body language - Some autistic people have body language that does not fit in with what is going on in the social environment, and may have body language that does not reflect their emotional state. People displaying the “negative symptoms” of schizophrenia may have the appearance of “blunted affect”, which can also be deceptive, as the level of emotionality can be normal or heightened in schizophrenia. Unfortunately many people judge others by appearances, and assume that a lack of emotional expression reflects an emotionless psychology or a lack of emotional involvement.

Autistic spectrum conditions/Autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) – Autism, Asperger syndrome and other conditions in the autistic spectrum are characterized by a number of core characteristics:- an ability to focus attention very deeply and for sustained periods, a deep satisfaction in studying and working on one narrowly-defined subject or project in depth and for long periods of time- a tendency to focus on the details or parts of a situation or thing rather than interacting with or thinking about the thing or situation as a whole or as an enclosed system- difficulty with communication, including language and non-verbal communication- difficulty with or lack of interest in imaginative play or pastimes- difficulty with or indifference to social interaction, "lack of empathy"- a need for stability in physical surroundings and timetable of activities, unexpected changes to plans or changes imposed by others may cause distress or anger and may disrupt existing systems of self-organization- stimming- sensory hypersensitivity, physical clumsiness and spatial thinking talents or deficits are some characteristics that are often but not always found in autistic people

There is a common belief that autistic people are unable to understand the concept of lying or are unskilled at lying. A lack of “mind-reading” ability in autistic people is believed to be the explanation. Anxiety and anxiety-related conditions such as OCD are often found to be co-occurring with autistic conditions.

Many theories have been put forward to explain autism. One recent theory is that autism is caused by some kind of deficiency in mirror neuron function. But according to the authors of a recent review of research on mirror neurons “…there is surprisingly little evidence to support the claim that a dysfunction in mirror neurons is the neural mechanism underlying ASD” and “Several studies report multiple anatomical differences between neurotypical and ASD individuals that include differences in cell morphology, cortical thickness, overall brain size and sub-cortical volumetric measurements mostly in brain areas not related to the ‘human mirror system’” (Dinstein et al 2008). The scientific consensus is that autism is highly genetically determined. Some researchers believe autism may be a catch-all diagnosis applied to a number of different unknown conditions that are caused by various genetic and/or environmental factors.

Narcissism/Narcissistic personality disorder -Correlated with Factors 1a and 1b of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, it may be more common in males.Histrionic personality disorder - Correlated with Factors 1a and 1b of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. More commonly identified in women than in men, and some have argued that this is a reflection of gender bias regarding which behaviours are considered acceptable in males and females.

Being a Loner – In her book Party of one: the loners’ manifesto Anneli Rufus described and refuted the common irrational prejudices against loners.

Not making eye contact – In his bestselling autobiography Look me in the eye John Robison did a smart job of describing and refuting the common incorrect belief that avoidance of eye contact is a sign that a person is hiding something or lying, or is a psychopath.

Maleness - The majority of prisoners and personnel in the armed forces are male. Boys are thought to have a greater preference for competitive and aggressive play activities than girls. This is taken by many as proof that males, as a group, essentially lack empathy. Males in general have stronger bodies than women, due to the effects of male hormones post-puberty. In most societies there is an expectation that males will take on the role of “breadwinner”, even in the cases of males who lack the intellectual, physical or social resources to take on this role effectively. Crime, sport and military service have traditionally been careers open to males who have limited work skills or limited academic achievement.

Australians – In the past it was a commonly held view that (white) Australians, as a race, are inferior or villainous due to the high representation of convicts as the founders of white Australian society. Winston Churchill was believed to have despised Australians. While racism, sexism and a fascination with criminals are features of Australian public life, Australia is in general a socially progressive nation in which human rights are recognized and sometimes even defended.

Social minorities – Xenophobia and prejudice against social minorities or anyone who is conspicuously different are human behaviours that are widespread in all societies.